Speculative Fiction—an all-encompassing genre created to describe stories of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and other stories that have an element of “What if...” in them. A story in speculative fiction is one that adds an element of the unreal, or asks, what would become of our society if history took a different direction at some important event? Fiction with a little something extra thrown in.—William D. Richards

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Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Chameleon's Challenge (Chameleon Assassin, Book 3) by B.R. Kingsolver

Release date: June 13, 2017

Subgenre: Post-apocalyptic, dystopian

About Chameleon's Challenge:

Libby's chameleon mutation has led to a lucrative career as a thief and
assassin. She normally doesn't worry about the comfort of corporate
executives, but when she stumbles onto the grisly murder of a rich man's
mistress, it gets her attention.

The murder leads Libby to
believe her best friend's life is in danger, and she vows to protect
her. The killings continue, some in broad daylight, but no one ever sees
the killer.

For a chameleon assassin, the scenario feels uncomfortably familiar.

Excerpt:

“Dad, if you had to catch me, how would you
go about it?”

“I’d probably bait a trap with chocolate.”

I threw my napkin at him. I wanted to throw
my fork. “Can you be serious?”

He chuckled and sat back, a faraway look on
his face. Pretty soon, he said, “I’d bait a trap with Nellie, but that’s not
what you’re asking, is it? You mean, how would I trap a chameleon? Bright light
and open space. A water canon would show his location because he’s still solid
in chameleon mode. A pit trap, because he still weighs the same. You get the
idea.”

“Remember when my abilities first began to
manifest?” He had hooked me up to metabolic monitors and brain scans, and tried
to figure out how I turned invisible, and then later how I managed to morph
into an illusion of another being. “The tests you ran to try and figure out how
I do what I do?”

He nodded. “Your ability with electricity,
both yours and your mother’s, is a physical phenomenon. There are scientific
papers dealing with the different manifestations of electrogenesis. But we
never did figure out your chameleon abilities. It has to be psychic. Even if we
had a brain scan, though, I don’t know if we could interpret it.”

“Yeah, well, but you never explained why
cameras can’t see me either. When Mike and I were in Chicago, he had a theory.
He wondered if it was a combination of the two mutations, the electrogenesis
and the chameleon ability. I looked it up, and there’s a difference between
electrogenesis and electrokinesis. But suppose I do both?”

Dad looked thoughtful. “You know, we always
tried to monitor you, your physiological processes, to see if anything changed
when you cast your illusion, or whatever it is you do. I never tried to see if
anything changed in the environment.”

We went downstairs to his laboratory, where
he set up several pieces of equipment. I watched him for about half an hour,
then he turned to me.

“Okay, do that blend into the background
thing.”

I blurred my image and heard a soft burp
from his computer, then a soft hum.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“Do it again,” he ordered.

I let myself become visible and the hum
stopped. Then I blurred my image again, heard the little burp, and the hum.

“What are you seeing?” I asked as I walked
behind him to look at the computer screen. He had a dozen windows with
different graphs displayed. Some of them didn’t show any activity, most showed
static, but a couple of them showed they were recording something.

“Well, I know more than I did before, but I
still don’t understand it,” he said.

“Will you answer my question? What is
that?” I pointed at the screen, then realized my image was still blurred and he
couldn’t see me. I unblurred, and he jumped. “What? You heard my voice, you
knew I was here.”

About the Chameleon Assassin series:

About B.R. Kingsolver:

BR Kingsolver, author of the Telepathic Clans and Chameleon
Assassin series, grew up surrounded by writers, artists, myths, and
folklore in Santa Fe, The City Different, in the Land of Enchantment.

After
living all over the US and exploring the world--from Amsterdam to the
Romanian Alps, and Russia to the Rocky Mountains--Kingsolver trades time
between Baltimore and Albuquerque. With an education in nursing and
biology and a Master's degree in business, Kingsolver has done
everything from construction to newspaper editor and jewelry to
computers.

Kingsolver, a passionate lifetime skier, currently
spends time writing and working with computers while living nine blocks
from the harbor in Baltimore as servant in residence to a very demanding
cat.

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